At the Oxford Farming Conference this week, George Eustice, DEFRA minister of state, said there was to be an end to direct farm payments after the UK leaves the EU.

“We will have a different system where we support agriculture to become more profitable and vibrant and make payments for environmental services,” Eustice said. “So if subsidies equal direct payments then, yes, we would like to move away from that.”

Just minutes before Eustice made his comments, his superior, DEFRA secretary of state Andrea Leadsom, had avoided answering a question on the same topic, saying it was "too early to go into the specifics of policy details" post-Brexit.

Not set in stone

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal after the conference, UFU CEO Wesley Aston said he does not think Eustice's comments are set in stone.

“I don’t think Eustice’s comments are set in stone,” he said. “I think we are all just still trying to work out what exiting the EU means for British farmers and I don’t think we can say anything for certain about payment support right now.”

Aston was keen to stress that before a decision can be made on payments, there needs to be an understanding of the kind of trade deals the UK will have with other countries after Brexit.

“This is the starting point really,” he said. “The amount of support farmers should receive depends on the type of trade deals we make. If we end up having to pay very high export tariffs then farmers will need more support and we will have to keep direct payments, especially while the food supply chain fails to support farmers.”

We would like to become more competitive and less reliant on direct payments

Balance

Aston also said that there needs to be a balance between direct payment for food production and payment for helping the environment.

“Of course we would like to become more competitive and less reliant on direct payments,” he said, “but we will need support while we ease ourselves out of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).”

It seems that the British government is already taking steps to ensure that UK farmers will have some certainty when it comes to payments after the CAP.

Plans are in the offing to send an agricultural bill through the House of Commons in 2018 that would ensure a specific amount of money is set aside for the farming industry on a multi-annual basis.

“This means we won’t have to keep going back to the Treasury every year to look for money for different things,” said Aston. “There will be an element of certainty for farmers if this bill is passed.”

Show of hands

When Andrea Leadsom, secretary of state at DEFRA, asked for a show of hands at the Oxford Farming Conference as to how many people felt her department was ready for Brexit, nobody except her colleague George Eustice raised their hand.

Aston, however, is relatively optimistic.

“The UFU is optimistic up to a point,” he said. “We are happy the government has committed to continuing the same level of payments for farmers up until 2020, despite the fact that if Article 50 is triggered this March we will be leaving the EU in 2019.

“But we need to make sure we use the next two years wisely and look at all the possibilities when it comes to support payments and trade deals,” he continued. “From a Northern Ireland perspective we are convinced our Government understands and appreciates the importance of our agricultural industry but we are not so convinced about London. A lot is being done on preparing for Brexit already but of course we have a lot more to do.”

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